About 150 diners packed Pi Pizzeria in Kirkwood on a recent Saturday night while another 150 waited for tables to open. An hour-and-a-half wait is not uncommon, and customer counts hit 1,000 on peak days.

Owner Chris Sommers said he thinks his pizza restaurants have hit a sweet spot as people narrowed their dining options in the soft economy. “We’re still a very affordable way to eat out,” he said.

While pizza sales nationally dropped 6 percent last year, pizzerias in St. Louis see the pie growing, and many are scouting for new locations.

Sommers opened the first Pi in the Delmar Loop two years ago and added locations in Kirkwood and the Central West End last year. Pi’s deep dish and thin crust offerings are on the high end, with the average ticket for two people ranging between $30 and $50.

“We’re hardly the cheapest, but a small pizza can feed two people, and a large can feed four,” he said. Sommers, who owns Pi with business partner Frank Uible, said he’s looking at sites in west St. Louis County to add a fourth restaurant and has had talks with investors in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Denver and as far as Dubai about expanding to those locations. “We’re debt free,” Sommers said. “We get two to three inquiries from investors a week. We just need to decide what is the proper growth.” In 2009, Sommers said he expected to have between $3 million and $4 million in revenue from the restaurants’ initial year of operation. Sommers declined to disclose sales figures for this story.

When Cincinnati, Ohio-based Dewey’s Pizza opened its first location locally, in Kirkwood in 2004, operating partner David Justice said he wasn’t sure about the strength of the area’s pizza market. Now Dewey’s locations in Kirkwood and University City are among the top sales performers for the company, which has 17 total locations, including two others in the metro area.

Dewey’s serves what it calls traditional East Coast style, hand-tossed pizzas, with an average check size of about $20.

Justice is looking at potential sites downtown, in Lafayette Square, St. Charles and Maplewood, with a new location opening in 2011 at the earliest.

“I still feel there’s ample room to grow,” Justice said about the St. Louis market. “I think we could do another two to three restaurants.”

Independently owned pizzerias Good Pie in Midtown, Katie’s Pizzeria in Clayton, and Bridge & Tunnel downtown each opened new restaurants in the midst of the economic downturn, and Racanelli’s will soon open a new location in University City.

Katie’s Pizzeria owner Katie Lee said she’s selling between 250 and 350 pizzas a day at her single location on Clayton Road. Katie’s specializes in artisan and Neapolitan pizzas, with everything made from scratch in the store. Prices range from about $10 to $20. Katie’s also has added free delivery, which has boosted business.

Lee said customers are seeking full-service dining without having to pay full-service restaurant prices. The 50-seat restaurant already has outgrown its current location. “Either we’ll expand the space we have, or we’ll open a second location,” Lee said. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been.”

Shelly Fortel, who runs Fortel’s Pizza Den’s Affton location, said Fortel’s saw sales declines during the recession but business is picking back up. Fortel’s has eight locations in the metro area. “We just hired three kids, and that was the first time in five months I’ve been hiring,” she said.

Newcomers include Brian Williams, who will debut the St. Louis National Pizza Co. on May 1 at 3201 S. Grand Blvd. He’ll serve pizza by the slice and will tap into demand from nearby Saint Louis University students.

Nationally, the recession has taken a bite of the $37 billion pizza industry’s revenue, according to Jeremy White, editor in chief of trade magazine Pizza Today. However, local independent pizzerias, which account for 40 percent of the industry, typically perform well during recessionary periods, according to White. “Independent shops have a local clientele and are associated with higher quality, so they’re able to retain customers very well during a recession,” he said.

At The Pasta House Co., president and CEO Kim Tucci said pizza currently accounts for 5 percent of sales, but he sees pizza as a growth opportunity. Last year, all 26 Pasta House Co. franchise and company-owned locations added pizza to the menu. “People love pizza,” Tucci said. “That will never go away.”

Chain Reaction

National pizza chains have seen their sales flatten or decline in recent years. Walter Butkus, principal at Redding, Conn.-based consulting firm Restaurant Research LLC, said the major chains have average same-store sales declines for the past four years.

Some of the national chains are growing in St. Louis. Papa John’s is opening a franchise location in Belleville, its 35th area location, this spring, and it expects to add two or three corporate-owned stores in St. Charles County and the Metro East in the next year.

“We feel like we’re pretty saturated in the St. Louis metro area, and now we’re looking at the outlying areas,” said Lynn McQuillen, Papa John’s operations vice president for the St. Louis area. “We’ve had some momentum in increasing customer counts, but with pricing wars, our sales are flat.”

Pizza Hut began offering any size pizza for $10 this year, leading many competitors to follow suit.

Papa John’s also faces strong competition from regional players, such as Imo’s. “St. Louis is a unique market because of Imo’s,” McQuillen said. “Not only do we have to battle national players, but we have a major regional player in Imo’s.” St. Louis-based Imo’s has 93 franchise locations, including 81 local stores.

The national pizza chains require a franchisee fee that ranges from $15,000 for Little Caesars to $25,000 for Domino’s and Pizza Hut. To spur growth, Papa John’s eliminated its $25,000 franchise fee through November 2010.

Domino’s, which has 92 franchise stores in metro St. Louis, developed revamped recipes for its sauce and dough in December. The publicly held company declined to discuss sales until its quarterly results are released in early May. Spokesman Tim McIntyre did say St. Louis is among Domino’s 15 largest markets.

Cecil Whittaker’s, a St. Louis-based chain with 25 stores, has seen its average ticket price decrease 10 percent, to $17.50, in the past two years, said Scott Moore, who manages the chain’s three company-owned stores.

Moore said Cecil Whittaker’s is riding out the economic downturn by targeting the value-conscious consumer who’s looking to spend less than $5 on a large pizza. Cecil Whittaker’s opened a new location in Festus in early 2009, and it currently has franchisees scouting spaces to open new locations in House Springs, Des Peres and Kirkwood.

“We’re recession-proof because our prices are so good,” Moore said. “You can always afford a pizza at Cecil Whittaker’s, no matter what happens to you.”

Not all chains have fared well here, however. Uno Chicago Grill, a Boston-based chain that has had a presence in St. Louis for more than a decade, exited the market this year with the closure of its Kirkwood and Chesterfield locations. Uno filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and is shuttering numerous locations across the country as part of its reorganization.

Uno’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Rick Hendrie said the chain didn’t have enough locations in St. Louis to support the marketing expense. He said Uno may seek to re-enter the St. Louis market at a later date, but only in the form of one of its quick-service Uno Express or Uno/Due Go fast casual layouts. Hendrie said the dining landscape has changed dramatically in St. Louis. “The competition has increased since we got there.”

Bigger Slice

Several pizzerias are eyeing adding new stores to the St. Louis market.

Pi: Considering a West County location, likely in Chesterfield. Also in talks to open locations in Kansas City, Denver, Washington D.C. and Dubai.

Dewey’s: The chain has looked at potential sites downtown, in Lafayette Square, St. Charles and Maplewood, with a new location opening in 2011 at the earliest.

Katie’s: The single location is Clayton has outgrown its space. Looking to expand its existing location or add a second location in the fall.

Cecil Whittaker’s: The chain has franchisees looking to open new locations in House Springs, Des Peres and Kirkwood.

Papa John’s: The chain is opening its 35th area location this spring in Belleville and will open 2-3 additional stores before the end of 2010, likely in St. Charles County and Monroe County, Ill.

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